


boundary

by myconstant



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-28
Updated: 2011-07-28
Packaged: 2017-10-21 21:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/229892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myconstant/pseuds/myconstant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day starts with promises of magical castles and gardens growing, but ends with a government toppled and a dark indigo sky burning with stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	boundary

**Author's Note:**

> for the big_jumps fic challenge.

 

 

 

The day starts with promises of magical castles and gardens growing, but ends with a government toppled and a dark indigo sky burning with stars.

“You’re getting good at this, Pond,” he tells her on the road that evening when they’re tracing the route back to the TARDIS. She almost forgets to smile, her fingers grasping deep into her coat pockets, reaching for nothing at all.

 

 

Truth is, she's not totally sure she knows how she got here.

It’s only early afternoon and Amy Pond sits in the back of a rundown army truck, the metal bench unsteady on the dirt road. In the other seats are the remnants of a makeshift infantry company, their clothes battered and faces blank. She tries to stop her teeth from chattering and to map out how in the universe she’s here. Honestly, it’s still a blend of motion, lasers, and tea, but the pieces are started to come together and Amy really can’t give any points for originality - the queen of the kingdom invites them for breakfast, but then continues to try to kill her guests because _look at that_ \- she’s an archenemy of the Doctor’s in disguise. And imagine - she’s supposed to have been dead for a thousand or so years.

Interesting, Amy thinks, how often this happens.

Then there are these people - a secret resistance, she concludes, for who wants something like _that_ as your head of state - these people who found her in the forest and promise to bring her to their camp, to the Doctor. Might as well.

A guard tells her it will only take twenty minutes, but she thinks it might feel closer to an hour. When the driver turns off the main road that wanders through the valley and onto the path leading down to a clearing dotted with tents, she lets out a relieved sigh.

Jumping off the back of the truck, the heels of her boots sink slightly into the mud. Here the trees are stark and the sky gray, but the air is clear in her lungs and she finds it all beautiful in a way that she might not have before.

“I’m glad they found you all right,” his voice says in her ear and out of habit, she leans back into the Doctor. His hands come up to rest on her arms where they travel slowly up and down the sleeves of her parka. “I was _plagued_ with terrible worry, Pond.”

“Oh, that’s rubbish. You knew I’d be fine.”

“Had to say something,” he replies and she can tell by the inflection in his voice that he’s smiling.

She tilts her head to the side to look at him and he’s all angles, lines, and geometry. Even for them, this is very close, but there is a near tangible line between them that they’ve been skirting since he woke up to find that she had chained him to a radiator. With another slight shift she could brush her lips across his crooked smile. Rock back on her heels and she’d be flush against him. Move her hands up to catch his, tell him she's not going to let go. She stays still, but the thoughts are there and they linger.

Any minute she expects him to pick up on her pheromones or translate the expression on her face, but he doesn’t and it’s a while before she steps away. They spend so much time running that she’s come to appreciate the idle moments - a cup of tea and a graphic novel in the TARDIS or the quiet seconds before he throws open the white doors that lead to supernovas, worlds unimaginable, and adventures for the history books.

A sentry walks over to tell them that the resistance leadership is waiting for them in the tent by the tall sycamore tree. Amy grins.

“Now, Doctor. We are observers only,” she says before ducking beneath the fabric, and she misses his smile and small shake of the head.

 

 

 

Later inside a dark hall that smells like burnt ash, Amy Pond will stand on a priceless mahogany dining table and pretend to be Churchill. Her cowboy boots will leave a trail of dirt and she'll abruptly raise the volume of her voice for emphasis, but this will all just be buying time for the Doctor to sprint across the rooftop and locate the transmitter. Not long after, he will kiss her hand when she inadvertently imprisons their evil doers du jour inside of old wine bottles and she will bite down on her lower lip a bit too hard. She already knows that he won’t let her in.

She can capture the castle, but she’ll never be able to capture him.

She’s not sure if she wants to.


End file.
